I don't know why, but I can stomach a lot more "description
of punishment" toward human beings than I can toward animals,
especialy dogs. Perhaps it's because people in general do so
much more to deserve bad treatment than animals do.
I'll say this to Miker, who I like and respect and with whom
I frequently disagree: regarding your dog-fighting vs.
steak-eating argument, speaking as someone who grew up on a
farm, descended from cattle ranchers, I'm here to tell you
that there is a world of difference between training
otherwise tame pets to kill for sport and butchering cattle.
I've participated in the latter, and I have to tell you, half
the time the cattle didn't even know they were dead. There's
a reason that a group of mindless people are frequently
referred to collectively as "cattle." Smart, they are not.
They never know what's coming to them, and they have a pretty
good life up to that point. More to the point it's done
humanely.
That's more than I can say about any aspect of dog-fighting,
and I hope they throw the book at that asshole Michael
Vick.
Attached below for your collective amusement is a link to
something topical about this subject:
http://www.cafepress.com/buy/vick/-/fpt_ex_____b___c__a__b0h_pe__aah__ls
As for discussing dog fighting as it occurs in fiction, I
think this list has not only a right to discuss it, but an
obligation to do so if it's topical. That said, there are
many topics on this list with which many list-members don't
bother.
All the Best-
Brian
----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Moore
To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 6:02 PM
Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Pelecanos on dogfighting
in the New Republic
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Michael Robison
<miker_zspider@...> wrote:
>
> Mark wrote:
>
> Just for the record, I posted the Pelecanos
article
> because it touched on his writing process, not
to
> start a debate on dogfighting (which is outside
the
> scope of this list).
>
> Bringing it back to hardboiled/noir lit, are
there
> other books than Pelecanos's about
dogfighting?
>
> ****************
> Hmm... So we can talk about books with dogfighting
in
> them but not dogfighting itself?
Dogfighting in crime fiction is fair game and
some discussion of
the practice itself would (given past practice)
be acceptable.
We've discussed cockfighting in the past on this
list both in
fiction and as it exists in the real world. When
you looped in the
morality of killing cows, the specter of a vegan
discussion on this
list seemed a possibility. If you have any
interest in the topic I
highly recommend Michael Pollan's THE OMNIVORE'S
DILEMMA, one of the
best books I've read this year. There's probably
a Yahoo group
devoted to the general topic. This ain't
it.
> If I was to touch on Pelecanos's writing style in
the
> piece, I'd say he takes an unconvincing leap in
logic
> and lands right in his happy place.
>
> miker
>
I've read your last line several times and I
recognize it is
intended to incisive and/or funny but be damn if
I can make sense of
it. But I've been a beat behind everything
today.
Richard Moore
__________________________________________________________
_______________
> Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect.
Join Yahoo!'s
user panel and lay it on us.
http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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